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Nathalie is a freelance journalist and author who blogs about her three favorite subjects – prayer, food, and travel – at www.prayerwalkguides.com 

I looked down at my calloused, blistered feet and thought with a bit of sarcasm, “So these are the beautiful feet of those who bring good news! God has a sense of humor.” I’d just walked and prayed over what seemed like every inch of Paris, France.

Paris was no stranger to me—it was the land of my birth and childhood.

My missionary parents had moved to France from the States before I was born and we’d lived there until I relocated to the U.S. for college. Now I’d returned to France for the summer not just to see old friends and enjoy good food but to spend some time praying over the city I loved so much. Over a two-week period, I walked and prayed in each of Paris’ cultural and historical districts.

As I walked the streets of Paris, I felt the Lord directing my thoughts and showing me how to pray. I met God in strange places there: I thought I would find Him in the magnificent cathedrals, but He was made a beggar there—a statue with downcast eyes and upturned palms, with a sign at His feet asking visitors to spare four euros for the upkeep of the sanctuary. I thought He would be far away from the red light district, but that is where I felt the need for Him most strongly. He is close to the broken-hearted.

That prayerwalking journey around Paris changed the way I see Paris and the Parisians, the way I see God, and also the way I see myself.

When I walked and prayed, I looked like an ordinary person on the outside, but inside I felt like a superhero.

I had always known preaching wasn’t my calling. Evangelism didn’t seem to be my gifting either. In fact, in childhood I remember trying to improve on God’s plan of salvation by telling one of my friends that in my religion we believed that in order to get to heaven, we had to take one other person with us—and would she be my one person? She eagerly said yes. I figured as long as the end result was that she was saved, it was okay for me to embellish the facts a little. After a good talking-to from my parents, I never tried that type of “creative evangelism” again.

I participated in many missions trips over the years doing mime, human videos, handing out tracts, and singing but it always felt like my meager efforts were woefully inadequate compared to the greatness of the need.

Secret Influence

That summer in Paris, I felt God speaking to me for the first time about praying and walking—as ministry!

It seemed a little weird to me at first. But I soon discovered there is something incredibly powerful about walking around a city and praying for the people you pass in the street.

What is prayerwalking? Prayerwalking is walking with your senses alert. It’s walking while asking God to sharpen your spiritual instincts, to open your eyes and your ears to the people and situations around you, in order to pray more effectively for the inhabitants of a city.

When you prayerwalk, you become a person of secret influence.

No one may even know you’re praying.

But somewhere in Heaven angels are rejoicing—and somewhere in Hell, Satan and his minions are beginning to quake with fear.

Prayerwalking is an ideal way to make an eternal difference in limited-access countries and in nations hostile to evangelism. After all, no one can forbid you to look into the eyes of a city’s residents and prayerfully enter into their suffering.

As you prayerwalk, you may find yourself so moved in your heart that you begin to weep. That’s okay. There’s a divine precedent for this! Jesus allowed His heart to be moved for the city of Jerusalem.

“As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it.” Luke 19:41

Can we do any less than weep when we walk the streets of cities where millions have yet to hear the good news that Jesus loves them and died so that they could have eternal life?

The next time you travel, I challenge you to let God be your tour guide. See the sights with the eyes of your heart wide open. It will be an adventure you won’t soon forget!

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